The prior art includes a game whereby two rods, enclosed at one end, are pivotable in a plane to define a track for a ball. By separating the rods beyond the width of the ball a player can attempt to cause the ball to fall into one or more predetermined scoring bins. A modification of such a game is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,360 to Meyer wherein none of the rod ends are anchored so that two players, one at either end, can compete simultaneously to try to control where the ball is dropped.
It has been found that games of the type described retain a player's interest for a relatively short time. This has been theorized as being due to the fact that the technique for dropping the ball in a relatively large scoring area can be mastered after continued play, leaving little, if any, challenge in the playing of the game.